Power Rangers: Tech Support
by Tiggs Panther
Summary: How would a geek like Cam handle being the first line of technical support for the Wind and Thunder Ninja Power Rangers?
1. Some days you just have to wonder

**Power Rangers: Tech Support**  
A totally non-serious look at Ninja Storm. Written by _Tiggs Panther_

_Standard disclaimers apply._

**1 - Some days you just have to wonder**

* * *

Another day, another battle, and another round of repairs and upgrades to attend to. Cam Watanabe did wonder at times if having a proper Technical Support job somewhere would be any better than being the main tech-guy for the current group of Power Rangers. From what he gathered from the various newsgroups, however, he was pretty sure that he didn't have it any harder - except for the fact that his "clueless users" were at the controls of some very powerful high-level weaponry.

Cam yawned, took another sip of coffee, and digitally signed and encrypted the latest set of schematics to e-mail to the Fairweather Institute over in Mariner Bay for checking. It's not that he wasn't confident in his own abilities, not that at all. But if there's one lesson from his father that he valued above any other, it was "There's never any harm in inviting an outside opinion." Besides, with there being more than one group around these days _au fait_ with Ranger-level technology, one of the first Geek Guidelines comes into play. "There's no use re-inventing the wheel."

His thoughts were interrupted by an incoming communication from one of the Rangers. It was Blake, the Navy Thunder Ranger.

"Hello, Ranger Tech-Support. Cam speaking, how may I help you?" he said, in one of his increasingly common moments of dry humour.  
"Cam," chided Sensei, gently. "That was uncalled for."  
"Sorry father," he apologized, before turning back to the communications. "Yes Blake?"  
"I just totalled my Tsunami Cycle," said Blake. "Can you fix it?"  
"Yeeees...." He turned to the Guinea Pig form of the Sensei. "You were saying, father?"

Yes, some days Cam wished that, with them being the world's only hope, his "end-users" were a little more clued in that the average non-geeks.

* * *

_Very short, I know. But it will be. This is an infrequent collection of short events in Cam's life as the tech-guy for the Ninja Rangers._


	2. The Power behind the Power

**Power Rangers: Tech Support**  
A totally non-serious look at Ninja Storm. Written by _Tiggs Panther_

_Standard disclaimers apply._

**2 - The Power _Behind_ the Power**

* * *

On reflection, Cam often wondered exactly how much effort the people of Blue Bay Harbor thought went into making sure the Power Rangers were able to beat back Lothor time after time. For that matter, he wondered if any "Ranger-protected" city realised what happened behind the scenes. 

In recent weeks the Power Rangers had been recognised for keeping the streets of Blue Bay Harbor safe from destruction-by-giant-alien.  
But who managed to code up several new nick-of-time Power Spheres - at the expense of a possible bout of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

The Rangers had been congratulated for bouncing back from near defeat a few days previously, kicking alien butt again within hours.  
But who'd been the one to manage to change the charred and overloaded mass of electronics back into fully-functional Morphers?

Time after time the Rangers would manage to show up at any given crisis, usually before it escalated to something too far out-of-control.  
But who was it spending every waking hour sat at the screens of Ninja-Ops? (And who had programmed the auto-monitor to allow him to get a few hours sleep and the off half-hour out of Ops?)

Right now Cam was stuck in the middle of trying to code up some optimisations for the Wind Rangers' Ninja-Swords. Lothor's goons were getting stronger, and the Rangers could use every bit of help they could get.  
Sure, the Rangers new (mostly) how much effort he put into keeping them tooled up. But the average citizen didn't have a clue.

It wasn't that he wanted any recognition. Not really, anyway. He wasn't doing this for glory, he just wanted to be helpful. But people _saw_ the Power Rangers. They _didn't_ see the repair work, the R&D, the caffeine-fueled all-nighters. They just saw that every time the Rangers called on their powers, things happened.

Technical Support truly was a thankless task at times. That, at least, the five Rangers understood to a degree. It wasn't as if they were recognised out of costume for what they'd done. They'd saved the city (and the world) more times than they liked to count, and people out in the city still just saw "a skater, three bikers, and some surfer-chick."

Not really a far cry from "the guy in glasses that no-one really notices."

* * *

_Just another in my infrequent looks at Cam's life as the Tech-guy in PRNS.  
When you're a techie, and things just work, no-one ever knows what you've done to keep it that way except those that work closest to you._


	3. Downtime

**Power Rangers: Tech Support**  
A totally non-serious look at Ninja Storm. Written by _Tiggs Panther_

_Standard disclaimers apply._

**3 - Downtime**

* * *

Well, it had certainly been an interesting day for Cameron Watanabe. Not to mention the other six inhabitants of Ninja Ops. Lothor had been quiet for a couple of days, so the Earth's remaining Ninja students were taking the opportunity for downtime, maintenance, and training. But Cam couldn't help but laugh inwardly at some of what had happened.

The most sane moment probably had to be setting Blake and Hunter off on Tsunami Cycle maintenance. He might be the technical expert, but what those two and Dustin didn't know about bikes wasn't worth knowing. But hearing them both despair at the states of the blue and red bikes made him realise, for once, that maybe he wasn't alone in having to watch non-experts deal with their area of expertise.

Eventually he left them to it. The weapons and systems had been checked as far as they could be, any only the mechanical fine-tuning remained. And even Cam would freely admit that the three bikers knew more about that aspect of things than he did. Dustin was otherwise busy, however, or he'd have been helping them out as well. He headed over to where he'd left the Mobile Command Center truck, meaning to give it a quick once-over.

"Hi Cam," said Tori, smiling. "I remembered you mentioning about needing to clean the truck, so I thought I'd handle that part for you." And handling it she was. The truck was currently parked near to the edge of the lake, and Tori was using her Ninja skills to collect water from the lake and channel it as a focussed blast towards the truck.  
"Isn't that sort of cheating?" he asked. "Using your Ninja powers of water as a high-powered garden-hose?"  
"Not really," she replied. "I did run it past your father first." She paused a moment. "To be honest, my control over water isn't quite what I wish it was," she said, even as she directed a stream to clear a large patch of mud from the windscreen. "And I figured that if I needed to practice _and_ the truck needed washing, why couldn't I just practice by washing the truck?"  
"It does make sense. Although I dread to think how the others could practice their Ninja skills."  
"It's funny you should mention that, Cam. Shane's at the far edge of the forest, doing just that. He mentioned something to Sensei about needing to increase his air-walking abilities."  
"What did my father suggest?" he asked, curious.  
"He sent Shane out with his skateboard, if you'd believe it."

Cam knew that his father advocating playing to one's own strengths, but even he was slightly unprepared for what he saw at the other end of the forest. Shane was using his inner Ninja skills to skim through the treetops on his skateboard. Every so often he would then jump from one tree, catching an impossible amount of air whilst performing an equally impossible move.

It did actually make a certain amount of sense. Being a keen skateboarder Shane was already used to moving through the air, and it was usually easier to use Ninja abilities to keep airborne when already moving than form a standing start. By combining the two, Shane would be able to practice both maintaining an airborne state as well as pulling off complex techniques whilst doing so.

At least, that's what Cam guessed. He didn't think that interrupting Shane mid-air would be a very good idea. So he left him to it, heading out into Blue Bay Harbor to pick up some supplies.

Cam didn't find out about Dustin's exploits until he got back to Ninja-ops, but they certainly affected the rest of his day.

Dustin was training with Sensei, improving his control over the _One-to-Many_ technique he regularly used as the Yellow Ranger. It was easy enough to do with a Ranger's level of power to draw from and a helmet to hide facial features, but managing it without Morphing was proving difficult.

Perhaps, in hindsight, Sensei should have suggested practicing outside, rather than inside the Ninja Ops. He was used to training the Rangers inside a building, though, and hadn't considered the added complication of several thousand dollars worth of high-tech surveillance equipment in this exact circumstance. In his defense, however, he also hadn't expected Dustin to be quite to close to succeeding as he had been.

The end-result of the sudden appearance of an extra fifteen Earth Ninjas in a small space already containing a highly advanced display screen was, predictably, yet another long night of "fixing stuff" ahead of Cam.


End file.
